Monday, June 14, 2010

Faculty Chair Elected to Teacher Association Board

By David Staudacher, Public Relation Manager at Rio Salado CollegeRio Salado College’s Faculty Chair of the Education department Janet Johnson was recently elected to serve a two-year term as the Secretary of the Executive Board of the National Association of Community College Teacher Education Programs (NACCTEP).

“This is a tremendous honor for me and Rio Salado College,” said Johnson, whose term starts in July. “I was a part of the original team who created this organization nine years ago. We wrote the bi-laws and now, as an executive board member, I have the opportunity to be at the forefront of change in teacher education throughout the nation.”

Johnson has served as a NACCTEP Member at Large for the past two years, where she participated in the annual board meetings in Washington, D.C., each fall as well as all the board meetings and the annual conference each spring. While one of her duties as the secretary is to take the minutes at meetings, she believes she can take on a much larger role.

“I was a Member At Large for the last two years, and I had ideas about how to make a difference and how to expand membership, but my two year term was up,” said Johnson. “So I decided to run for secretary to help the organization expand.”

Johnson has been the faculty chair of Education at Rio Salado, 2323 W. 14 St., Tempe, since 1999, and said that her participation as secretary of the NACCCTEP also will benefit the Tempe-based college.

“NACCTEP membership consists of community colleges across the United States who offer or are interested in offering teacher education courses,” said Johnson. “Being a member and secretary of NACCTEP allows me to collaborate, share, and learn from other community colleges and their experiences related to teacher education.”

Johnson is not the only person excited about her new role. NACCCTEP Executive Director Ray Ostos believes she will be a key member in the organization.

“NACCTEP promotes the community college role in the recruitment, preparation, retention, and renewal of diverse PreK-12 teachers and advances quality teacher education programs in the community college,” said Ostos. “As the Secretary, Dr. Johnson will serve a significant role in shaping the future of NACCTEP and advocating for the crucial work of community colleges in the area of teacher education.”

To learn more about Rio Salado College’s Teacher Education programs, please visit http://www.riosalado.edu/education. To learn more about the NACCTEP, visit http://www.nacctep.org.